July 10

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1853 Caroline Atwater Mason born Providence, RI (d. 1939). Prolific author; raised a Quaker; lifelong pacifist who opposed World War I.

  • 1858 Katherine Devereux Blake born Manhattan, NY (d. 1950). Pacifist educator, journalist and suffragist; Principal of Manhattan PS 6.; WILPF leader.

  • 1875 Mary McLeod Bethune born Mayesville, SC (d. 1955). Internationalist Black leader and government official; First Black College president; civil rights leader; only official American Black woman counselor at founding of UN San Francisco 1945.

  • 1896 Therese Casgrain born Ste. Irenne-des-Bains, Quebec (d. 1981). Canadian anti-nuclear leader, founder of Voice of Women (VOW) 1960; arrested Paris for anti-nuclear protest; opposed US war in Vietnam and conscription in WW II.

  • 1918 Kay Camp born Mt. Kisko, NY (d. 2006). Quaker International president of WILPF 1974-80; led opposition to Vietnam War and nuclear weapons; first meeting of Russian and American women 1961; led delegation to Vietnam for Vietnamese women peace agreement 1971; led human rights visit to Chile 1974; US delegate to UN Disarmament meeting 1978; 3 years UNESCO commissioner 1980-82; created Stop the Arms Race (S.T.A.R) campaign 1980; war tax resister; arrested for trying to see President Reagan 1983.

  • 1921 Eunice Kennedy Shriver born Brookline, MA (d. 2009). Founded Special Olympics International 1968.

  • 1957 Cindy Sheehan born Inglewood, CA. Leading Iraq War resister. Established Camp Casey outside George W. Bush's ranch in Texas, in honor of her son, killed in Iraq War.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1899 International Council of Women created Committee on Peace & Arbitration, Lady Aberdeen, chair, Bertha von Suttner, secretary.

  • 1917 Emma Goldman sentenced to two years in prison for draft resistance.

  • 1921 Third Conference of WILPF, Vienna; resolutions and committees on nonviolence, and education for peace.

  • 1951 Dr. Ruth Bleier refused Sen. McCarthy’s demand for information on her peace associates.

  • 1985 Women's Convoy to Central America arrived Managua, Nicaragua.

  • 1995 Victory for Nonviolence: Aung San Suu Kyi released from house arrest of five years.

  • 2007 3rd International Women’s Peace Conference held in Dallas, TX.

  • 2014 Mary Anne Grady Flores sentenced to year in prison for her Ash Wednesday protest against drones at Hancock AFB.